The new Lotus F1 team has announced its driver line-up for the 2010 Formula One season. Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will take the helm(s) for the Malaysian team in its inaugural year.
Jarno Trulli joins Lotus F1 Racing after Toyota’s withdrawal from the sport this year, fresh from a not-unimpressive eighth-place finish in the 2009 driver’s standings. Heikki Kovalainen migrates from McLaren, with Jenson Button taking his seat alongside Lewis Hamilton.
The news of the new line-up came from Malaysia's sports minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek, who also announced that Malaysian former A1GP driver Fairuz Fauzy has been confirmed as the team's third driver.
Commenting on the announcement, team principal Tony Fernandes said: “Trulli will bring us a lot of experience to develop the team. Heikki is a young driver with a lot of experience so I think we have fantastic drivers, with Fairuz as well. It is a wonderful mix of experience, youth and passion."
Despite this Fernandes remains cautious about the team's goals: "We are not setting any big targets; we want to at least be the best of the new teams."
F1 team wants to protect Lotus heritage
The news comes after Fernandes recently stated that he expects the team’s relationship with Lotus ‘proper’ to grow as time goes on, and he ultimately expects Lotus to buy in to the Malaysian government-backed team.
Thankfully, he is also clearly mindful of the fears of some Lotus enthusiasts about the possible impact of the two Lotus entities 'crossing over':
"I don't think we can claim any of the heritage, but we are very clear about making sure we don't destroy any of the prestige”, he said.
"We have an advisory council to make sure that we protect what has been built by Colin Chapman and the people at Lotus. We'll certainly celebrate it and work with it.”